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Can’t Wait for Manuals in EVs? They May Be Coming Sooner Than You Think
The fact that the idea of manual transmissions for electric vehicles is even a thing is moderately surprising: It seems like the answer to a question nobody is asking. But apparently someone is, and manufacturers, especially those hailing from Japan, are answering with full manual transmissions, fake clutch and all.
There’s a precedent for this. If you think back to the 1980s, most of Japan’s motorcycle companies recognized that American loyalty to Harley Davidson just wasn’t waning—despite the allure of the silky-smooth engines from Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Yamaha—and they knew they had to take action.
So they all pursued the less silky-smooth V-twin market that Harley owned. It’s not hard to imagine the conversations product planners had with the engineers: “No, it needs to vibrate more and make the correct noise! You’re building it all wrong!”
You’d walk into, say, a Yamaha showroom, and there it was: the 1981 Virago 750 V-twin, parked next to a silky-smooth Seca XJ750 with the inline four-cylinder engine. (Both bikes were nicely done, but like an idiot, I bought a Yamaha XS650 Heritage Special with the vertical twin, left over from when Yamaha was copying Triumph and BSA instead of Harley. You want noise and vibration? Right here.)
Decades later, what we’re talking about is a full manual-transmission sensation, complete with a fake clutch pedal and the ability to actually “stall” the car if you don’t fake-shift properly. This differs from the arrangement that is already available in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, which uses paddle shifters to simulate an eight-speed transmission. It’s accompanied by piped-in noise from eight speakers, which Forbes says is a “Shelby-like guttural growl” that caused the writer “to giggle just a bit at the delightful engine sounds.”
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In the race to get a manual-transmission vehicle into production, it would appear that Toyota is the farthest down that road. In 2023, the company invited some automotive writers to Japan to drive a Lexus UX300e, the production version of which Lexus advertises as “creating a uniquely smooth and quiet experience.” But this particular UX300e had been fitted with a clutch and a six-speed manual transmission instead of the usual one-speed found, quite reasonably, in most electric vehicles.
The “noise,” incidentally, was supplied by a recording of a gas-powered Volkswagen Golf. The clutch pedal was only there for show: You could shift gears at full speed without it. Keep the clutch pedal pressed in, though, and the vehicle would eventually slow to a stop.
Reviews of the manual UX300e were interesting. “To give due credit, the idea of the manual EV felt much less silly after we had experienced it,” said Car and Driver. The headline on the Motor Trend story was “We Tried Toyota’s Fake Manual Transmission for EVs. Is It Awesome?” That publication said a manual in an electric car “strikes us as both a fun party trick to show your pals and a useful tool to transform a car from faithful weekday commuter to fun back-road blaster or autocross champ on the weekends. Sign us up.” And Road & Track said, “You’re out of free articles. Join now.” Oh, sorry.
As for Honda, that’s interesting, too: In 2022, Honda’s “head of electrification,” Shinji Aoyama, was interviewed by C&D. When asked about manuals in electric vehicles, the story said, “He personally does not like the idea of an artificial solution like this and said that Honda would pursue other ways of making its EVs fun to drive.”
Then last October, it was confirmed that Honda had already developed a manual transmission for electric vehicles, which evidently impressed Motor Authority even before it was available to drive: “A manual transmission like the one Honda has developed will make driving an EV much more fun, meaning it can deliver an extra layer of emotion, just like in a conventional manual-equipped car.”
And, don’t forget the Germans: In 2023, BMW M CEO Franciscus Van Meel told the Australian website whichcar.com that a solution for making electric vehicles appealing to enthusiasts “might be to simulate gears or to have another acoustic feedback, or even vibrations as a feedback.”
American companies are in on it, too: Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Global Technologies is also interested in the fake, err, simulation technology, filing a very real patent application in late 2023 for a “SHIFTER ASSEMBLY FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE” which, reading through the application, seems to consist largely of “a plurality of wires.” As for the “why?,” the patent application says that “electric vehicles lack [the] operator-to-vehicle physical feedback that is advantageous in conventional motor vehicles.” The patent was published on March 20, meaning that it has been received and is under review.
No need for Ford to patent piped-in sound, because you can already equip a Mustang Mach-E with a 300-watt Borla Active Performance Sound system, which pipes in “professional recordings” of V-8-powered cars that have Borla exhausts. Those sounds include “idle, ramps to redline, cruising, throttle lifts, ‘burbles & pops’ and more,” Borla says, thus adding “a cherished layer of sensory awareness to driving enthusiasts.”
From all indications, it looks like Toyota will be the first out of the gate with a manual-transmission electric vehicle. Two years ago, in a presentation titled “Let’s Change the Future of Cars,” Toyota Battery Electric Vehicle head Takero Kato said he would indeed change the future of cars with developments like “The manual EV. We will deliver exciting surprises and fun to our customers with technologies achievable only by a carmaker.” This supposedly happens in 2026, unless that’s a fake date, too.
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A manual in an EV ranks right up there with fake engine noise
Reading through these comments, pro or con, you cannot have this conversation without using terms like ‘simulate’ or ‘video game’
This stuff still confuses me. I get that driving an Ionic N with simulated shifting (or anything else similar) can be/is very fun on a track…but that seems like “fun” as in “fun like a video game” where there is no real sense of pushing the vehicle as fast as it can go around the track, as opposed to “fun like a track day because I’m focused on the proper technique to make the best lap times”. The first step to actually becoming one with the machine (which I believe is the same “piloting” skill/activity no matter what propulsion/maneuver effect system, car, plane, boat, ICE, EV, Ion drive, etc.) and learning how to exact the most performance out of it…is to TURN OFF ALL THE INTRUSIONS and get as CLOSE TO THE ACTUAL CONTROL/FEEDBACK OF THE MACHINE. Or in other words, to get good lap times in the Ionic, first thing necessary is to turn off all the gimmicks and get to knowing how the thing actually goes ’round.
Isn’t that the core of the fun for an “enthusiast”? Getting to Zen mode while piloting whatever machine gets you excited, and making said machine do things that nobody else can do? Thru a combination of tuning, training, practice, theory, and data traces of corner exit speed, suspension setup (which is THE SAME nuanced black art no matter if you have ICE or EV under the skin) are all the true inputs to get the TRUE OUTPUT: SPEED.
Why do EV manufacturers assume that if you want EV motivation, that you want to drive a PHONE?? I think Porsche states this OUT LOUD, by NOT offering “one pedal driving” which ALL enthusiasts know is NOT the correct way to modulate traction while trail braking. Yes, if you purchase a Panamera or Cayenne, Porsche expects that you might want to do that, so all their offerings feel “right” when driven “properly”. I trail brake when driving my Cayenne into almost every single turn on the way to anywhere.
Why all this nonsense?? ALL enthusiasts can agree that the “raw” car is more fun than the “sterile” car. That the quirky car is fun because the quirks are inherent to providing the benefits, and wringing out the best performance, despite the downsides, IS WHAT IS FUN. Putting artificial “quirks” (like fake stalls, phantom shift points) JUST GETS IN THE WAY of figuring out HOW TO MAKE THE CAR FAST.
Isn’t that what “enthusiasm” for the cars is?? Appreciating the pilots that can overcome the quirks and get the chassis MOVING…of course this applies to motorsport enthusiasm, because this article is about simulating this stuff mostly for track use…there are plenty of ways to appreciate cars and technology that find this kind of simulation tech in cars “fun”.
But seriously, why can’t we all just embrace this new technology (I mean EV, NOT fake shifting), stop comparing it to the “old feel of ICE quirkiness” and start really RACING EVs, beyond the current Formula E. I saw a Tesla 3 beat all but 3 cars at a recent autocross. No mods, just summer tires. It’s OK that EVs are in our future, we should start working on them becoming competitive. If you ask me, that means by rejecting all this ICE simulator stuff, and focusing on designing fast, fun, EVs that give the driver a CONNECTED sensation to the road, to the drivetrain, TO THE SPEED.
“To get good lap times in the Ionic, first thing necessary is to turn off all the gimmicks and get to knowing how the thing actually goes ’round.”
Not necessarily. Many “race modes” are tuned to specifically save you from wiping out, going off track, etc. and damaging your car. They do nothing else in terms of intervention. I believe it is called “N Race” mode on the Ioniq. Haven’t experienced it in an N-tuned Hyundai, but I have in McLarens and its an amazing bit of technology.
Race mode knows you’re going 11/10ths into a turn well before you realize you are not going 9/10ths. Turning it all off is the goal, but it might just be a dream because we need to log hundreds of hours on a track to get that good.
I have said they could do this easy. They also could simulate the power range with the computer controlling the power to the wheels.
They also could overdrive the EV to gain more highway miles. I saw in the SAE magazine a chain and gear with a deraile that could over drive a EV.
But till they get the prices down, weight down and charging times up they have bigger fish to fry.
Why not just put playing cards in the wheel spokes?
I am glad my blender has five speeds though…
Piped-in exhaust sounds? Hilarious! And ridiculous. But I’d happily shift an EV, I suppose.
“And Road & Track said, “You’re out of free articles. Join now.” Oh, sorry.” ….
Off topic, but you can usually renew your free articles on websites by erasing all the cookies on your computer/phone. (That may have other minor effects such as the Hagerty site again asking you to accept cookies the next time you connect).
Ahhhhh!
I think we have a new term, the FMT or Fake Manual Transmission. I’d rather have a regular ICE setup with an Auto, DCT or manual.